Brighton-based developer The Chinese Room recently gave fans the first look at its new PS4 exclusive, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, since its unveiling at E3 2014.
In a blog post on the company’s website, creative director Dan Pinchbeck shared a lot of information regarding the progress the game has made in the last 6 months – including a few screenshots and even some music from the soundtrack: Wendy’s Theme.
Chalking it up to the spirit of the holiday season, Pinchbeck went into detail about the team and where the game stands: “Since E3, we’ve been working hard to get the game up towards alpha and we’re nearly there. This means the game world is now locked… There’s a lot of backwards and forwards during this process, especially on a game that’s not delivering its story in a linear, corridor fashion.”
He went on to reveal that there are 6 major areas in the game, “each of them needing a distinct identity whilst hanging together as a coherent whole.” Many fans have been excited up to this point for the game’s mystique and enigmatic nature, which Pinchbeck only compounded by saying: “It’s always been a tough game to talk about, because it’s a mystery, and that mystery is woven into the fabric of everything.” From what we’ve seen, the game is similar to the popular indie title, Gone Home, in that it shares a first-person exploratory experience and utilizes environmental storytelling.
The game takes place in 1980 rural England, following what appears to be a Rapture-esque event that leaves the game world devoid of human life. The result is a haunting, serene landscape with a non-linear story, that, according to Pinchbeck, “is really powerful and engaging which, after all, was always the whole point.”
A release date wasn’t given, but the developer ended the post simply with, “Rapture’s coming”, and the cryptic Latin statement: “Omnes pulvis stellarum sumus.” Roughly translated to: “We are all stardust.”